Traditional art and sketching

Peruse our Sketching from the Imagination series, start your own sketch journal, or try your hand at clay sculpting! If you’re a complete beginner looking for a new hobby, or even an experienced artist looking for inspiration and workflow insights, our traditional art and sketching resources have plenty to offer!

3D digital art

Covering a wide variety of software and approaches, our books, magazines, and eBooks are there to offer you the support and motivation you need. Whether you want to sculpt a monster in ZBrush or create a stylized character in 3ds Max, take a look at our range to start your next project!

Issue 03 of Total magazine focuses on the theme of characters, including tutorials from Randy Bishop, Denis Zilber, and Brun Croes to help you hone your character design skills. So, get stuck in and see what characters we can help you create in the issue!

Welcome to total magazine issue two! This month’s focus is squarely on anatomy, with a mix of traditional, 2D, and 3D tutorials to get stuck into. So polish those tools, crack your fingers, and refine that muscle definition or nail that pose!

In the very first issue you will be treated to an introduction to the 3dtotal team, and an insight into some of the projects we are working on at the moment. Additionally you can enjoy some of our sci-fi themed articles and tutorials which we hope will help take your own work to the next step.

Beginner’s Guide to Character Creation in Maya continues 3dtotal’s tradition of offering helpful guides for beginners looking to step into the world of digital art. Talented 3D Animator and Trainer, Jahirul Amin, gives an insightful breakdown of how to model from scratch using Maya and Mudbox. Not only will you learn about the principles of rigging and animation, with a step-by-step guide detailing how to link the joints and create constraints and controls for animation, you will also learn how to correctly light and render your scene for porfolio-worthy presentation. Plus, in-depth chapters on anatomy will provide you with a solid foundation on which to develop your 3D character skills, so that by the end of this book you will have created your very own realistic walk cycle.

One of the appeals of many modern computer games is the ability to explore vast worlds created by talented teams of artists and designers. You can wander around, venturing from one realm to another, absorbing impressive landscapes while tackling challenges and enemies of every description. One of the challenges faced by the concept artists working on a game like this is creating a variety of environments that still look consistent, design-wise. Within this eBook series our artists will be showing us how to design six diverse fantasy realms from the same world, while also describing their own painting process.

Digital Art Masters: Volume 8 is not your typical digital art gallery book. While it does showcase stunning work from 50 of the best international artists, it also includes detailed tutorials explaining how each image was created. Each artist offers insight into their workflow and the methods they employ when it comes to creating a professional piece, from the early concept stage through to the final product. In addition, this year's volume boasts a selection of unique, never-before-seen images for your viewing pleasure. If you're looking to be inspired and learn something at the same time then Digital Art Masters: Volume 8 ticks all of the boxes.

Futuristic vehicles are popular within the CG industry and are often tackled using a variety of software and approaches. Creating a complicated model which then needs to be textured and lit can be a time consuming process, which is only necessary if the model is to be animated or used in a games engine at a later date. If you are creating a still there is an easier way to texture and light your model that will save you a lot of time and which will still produce impressive results. In this eBook Dhilip Somesh will show you how to create a simple 3D model which will then be textured, painted and lit in Photoshop to create amazing futuristic vehicle illustrations.

Photoshop is becoming more and more important in the work flow of a 3D artist. If you are creating 3D stills using Photoshop is a great way to complete your image and add effects quickly and effectively. In this eBook tutorial series Photoshop Pro Richard Tilbury will be showing how to totally transform an image in Photoshop. We will start each chapter with a textured 3D model. That model will then be put into Photoshop where Rich will turn it into a polished image. Using Photoshop can be daunting to 3D artists as many see is as a tool for digital painters, but Rich has provided simple step by step techniques and methods that will transform your work flow forever.

This six chapter eBook aims to show the value of post-production and, more specifically, the ways in which Photoshop can be used to aid the 3D pipeline. Over the course of the tutorial we shall focus on the various tools and techniques on offer in Photoshop that are frequently used to improve 3D renders.

This eBook tutorial series resolves around the use of 3D as a starting point for digital painting. In particular we will explore the value of Google SketchUp, a free program enabling users to quickly build 3d environments using a set of intuitive tools.

Over the last seven years, the Digital Art Masters series has brought together over 300 fantastic examples of the world's best 2D and 3D digital art. Digital Art Masters: Volume 7 continues this tradition by ushering in a new elite group of talented artists whose images are sure to inspire and astound in equal measure. But this book doesn't just showcase beautiful art; it also offers up details of the creation process behind each image, penned by the artists themselves, presenting a unique opportunity for readers to follow in the footsteps of the masters. Covering topics ranging from fantasy and characters to scenes and cartoons, Digital Art Masters: Volume 7 has something for everyone and is sure to get those creative juices flowing.